The purpose of this glossary is to encourage missionaries who have served Chinese speaking missions throughout the Church to continue to read the Book of Mormon now written in simplified characters. This glossary may also be used by Mandarin (putonghua) speakers that need to prepare talks and would like to quote verses from the Book of Mormon. The glossary repeats uncommon characters throughout the book so that when a member prepares a talk and wants to quote a passage from Ether, will find the term yan (rock) repeated as first entered from I Nephi. Hence the glossary can be used both by those who read the book from beginning to end and by occasional users that want to be able to read specific scriptures.

The glossary has been published in Adobe Acrobat format so that Chinese characters will be visible on any computer, regardless of whether or not Chinese fonts are installed. We do not intend to suppose that this glossary is definitive. Rather we propose that this work effort be cooperative, interactive and encourage users to correct, add terms, and make suggestions for improvement. Please send your comments by email to Dr. Scott W. Galer . The working copy of the glossary was originally composed by Dr. Frederick W. Crook using the NJStar software so that corrections can be processed and pages republished on the website. Dr. Crook served a mission in Taiwan from 1960-1962, was a Chinese speaking stake missionary in Provo, Utah from 1963-1964, a Mandarin speaking district missionary in Hong Kong in 1974, and was a Mission President in the Taipei Taiwan Mission from 1977-79 and in the Taichung Taiwan Mission from 1979-1980. He has not received linguistic training in universities rather he has spent the past 46 years plodding along trying to learn a beautiful language from a beautiful and meaningful book. His hope is that this glossary will smooth the way for many others to continue to read and study the Book of Mormon.